New Delhi: Union Minister of Human Resource Development Mr Prakash Javadekar today launched the Fund and Reform Tracker developed by Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) here in New Delhi.

Speaking on the occasion the Minister said the Fund and Reform Tracker, as the name suggests, will monitor RUSA projects from the minute they are sanctioned and track their progress till their final completion. The Reform Tracker, on the other hand, will be a sort of a report card of states with details of their higher education policies, plans and best practices. These have largely been reflected in their commitment given to the central government.

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There has never been a more exciting time in the education sector as now. To re-imagine our classrooms, be in sync with time and technology and engage stakeholders in constant conversation to do and achieve more, is the aim of this App, Mr Javadekar added.

He said this interface will be available for the central government, the state higher education stakeholders and institutional leaders, apart from thousands of vendors panned across India. Each will get a varied level of access to the App depending on their role and functionality.

Key features of the App are:

It will capture the fund allocation as per the Project Approval Board, the instalment-wise fund release by the centre and the state, the institution-wise key project, vendors appointed and the payment made to them as also stage-wise photos and time stamps of payments made and comments entered.

Component-wise details give a quick snapshot into the funding of RUSA projects. Whether it is infrastructure grants of equity initiatives, this window gives a peek into the funds approved, the amount released, the sum utilized and the percentage of work completed.

Stakeholders can also get granular details on the money released from the centre and the state. The date stamps give a picture on the timelines followed and the pictures provide the ground reality.

Tracking projects is the soul of this App, and every initiative is tagged with a unique ID number, thus providing the entire story of how an idea germinated and matured.

A powerful Dashboard gives an overall picture of the scheme and the state-wise performance of the impact that the programme has made.

Mr Javadekar said RUSA has invested and will continue to infuse resources in state universities. With over 94% of India’s student population in state institution, the two-year-old RUSA scheme has made its impact felt at thousands of campuses. As India’s youth demands high quality education and a rich campus experience, it is imperative that states pick best practices from each other.

Hence, it is only critical that RUSA expands in breadth and deepens in its reach. And at the MHRD, this reliance on technology will pave the way for smarter governance in the New Digital India our Prime Minister speaks of, the Minister further added.

The portal is a one-stop for States’ Higher Education Plans, decision of the States’ Higher Education Councils and details of the resources under this scheme. Also, the gallery is a rich repository of the projects initiated under RUSA.